New Milford mayor reaffirms Pettibone as a community center

By Barry Lytton

Published
5:10 pm EST, Tuesday, February 28, 2017

NEW MILFORD — Hours before a scheduled public hearing Tuesday on a special permit allowing the town to convert John Pettibone School into a community center, Mayor David Gronbach released a letter explaining why he withdrew the application last week, adding that the project will move forward without the permit.

“We continue to work towards the move of the operations and programs of the Youth Agency and Parks and Recreation into Pettibone as soon as the electrical work and other repair work is completed,” Gronbach wrote.

In the letter, Gronbach said the town no longer needs a special permit because the Board of Education dropped plans to move 30 school administrators into the building.

Zoning Board Chairman Bill Taylor said early Tuesday evening he hadn’t yet seen the letter and couldn’t comment on whether Gronbach’s argument passes muster with the zoning code. But it is the board’s job, he said, to decide whether a special permit is needed.

“We follow the rules,” Taylor said.

Earlier this month, the school board scuttled plans to move into Pettibone after failing to reach agreement with Gronbach over how the proposed move would be paid for.

The mayor argues that a permit isn’t needed to move the Youth Agency, now situated in the school board’s East Street building, because it has held summer programs in the old school in the past.

Similarly, Parks and Recreation “previously operated their programs out of the Pettibone building, including their summer camp, educational classes and sports programs,” Gronbach wrote. “The same uses are proposed going forward.”